Month: April 2009

Every January, my friend Mary throws a fabulous pie party. Three years ago, my contributions to said party: standard Pecan Pie and Spaghetti Pie. The former is my specialty while the latter was basically baked spaghetti in a pie dish. Novel & tasty, but nothing monumental. That’s pretty much how I feel about today’s offering from Skillet. Non-remarkable.

Remaining options were grilled calamari stew, their standard yet fabulous burger, and some other soup which I’m sure would be the tastiest version of its kind but I wasn’t in the mood. The sandwich jumped right out as easy and good and tasty. It was. All morning I dealt with a busy Mexico commerce project (oh heavens the timing seems cruel and I just have immense sympathy for what’s been going on between the cartels and the flu) and I pre-ordered and found myself lucky to grab 20 minutes with a sunny view by the water.

I also realized just how much I’ve missed basil since last Summer. Time to plant.

Months ago, I heard Ruth Reichl had a new book coming out. I’ve read Garlic and Sapphires, Tender at the Bone, and Comfort Me with Apples in the last two years. I loved all three; she’s one of my favorite writers. I promptly added the new one — Not Becoming my Mother — to my library reserve list as a reminder. I forgot I’d done this until I got notice from the library system.

She’ll be coming to town for a Kim Rickett’s event on May 15. I’ll be getting a copy then but decided to go pick it up as soon as I could today. I might even be done later tonight.

I’ve written very extensively about last year’s garden. This year, Mr. T’s working on it again. The arugula’s the first to arrive — it can withstand the most.

Tonight, I had zero plans. It was great. I took this picture while simmering Butter Chicken.

Several weeks ago, I heard Alligator Soul in Everett holds crawfish boils on Saturdays during the season. I had a 3-hour study group but decided Friday to make reservations for soon after the meeting. I suspected they’d get busy so I asked the woman on the phone if she was absolutely sure they wouldn’t run out. She acted like that was a dumb question.

At 1, when my group was done, I scurried home to pick up Mr. T. To say I was excited: complete understatement. We were about halfway to Alligator Soul (20 miles) when my phone rang. The hostess was calling at 1:30 to say they’d run out of crawfish. I was livid. LIVID. Livid.

We got off the interstate to reformulate our gameplan.

I consulted the G1 and remembered I’d wanted to try out the H Mart’s Kobe. We headed over to check out their katsu I’d heard about. (Mr. T fondly recalls a great katsu place outside of his Tokyo hotel where he stayed for 6 weeks on business and is looking for the stateside equivalent.) I also ordered a side of kimchi udon. Everything tasted pretty good, but I wasn’t wowed this time. I’d try again. The service, I have to note, was stellar. You don’t normally see that with a crew of young’uns working the shop.

And then we had Beard Papa. Our trip = success.

Let’s repurpose a cliche: I brake for tulips. I’ll happily dedicate vacation days to see springtime flowers, though today was not one of those days.

My team went to Tutta Bella today, in Wallingford. I had another errand to run around the same time and was sans car, so I took the opportunity to walk there from Fremont. My timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The sun came out just in time.

*I wish!

Every day I see ships float by, from my perch. During my weekly walk to the Skillet today I noticed this high roller. The ship canal is frequented by canoes, kayaks, barges, tourist boats, and other Seattle-y whatnot, but the yacht is a little less common at a handful a day. Thanks to Andy Samberg, nowadays I start humming the “I’m on a Boat” song to myself when I see these yachtees.

Tonight, I met up with an old friend. We go way back to our days as legislative interns at the Utah State Capitol. I’ve missed her in the 13 years since we’ve seen each other. So much has happened…we spent 5 hours catching up at Brouwer’s.

It was really great to see her again.

Remember Hello, Clarice? The Brown Derby is back at it again all week, with their interpretation of the Goonies. Motomotoyama & friends saved me a seat so I could join them after a quick post-work disco nap.

I’ve yet to see the ’80s movie, but I hear I’m not missing much more than what I learned at tonight’s theatrics.

The weather doesn’t get more perfect than today’s. It might’ve hit 80 at one point.

I had a meeting at MOHAI in Montlake. Afterward, I went with friends to Quinn’s. I’ve heard so much about it — it lived up to the hype. Hours later — and too late for trivia — we realized we’d stayed out way late on a school night. Totally worth not making it home until midnight.

We’d spoken of plans to visit some friends downtown. But at the end of the workday, we decided to grill up some jalapeno burgers instead. This is Mr. T in the souvenir I brought him from Buenos Aires in November 2007.

Weeks back, I picked up a batch of new herbs from Swanson’s on the assumption that Snowpocalypse killed most. Turns out, my mints and oreganos were hardier than I expected. I bought obscure kinds, so most complemented the current upcoming crop just fine.

To commemorate our good fortune with the weather gods, we invited two other couples over at the last minute for an impromptu games. It ended in Cartegena & many, many hours later.

Quote from a guest regarding Mr. T’s grilling prowess, “This is the best steak I’ve had in the last five years.” That’s mah man. We served it with asparagus (it’s Spargelzeit!) and a Greek Pasta Salad. Such spontaneity meant I lapsed on dessert, but the chocolate stash saved the day.

I hope we do this again soon.

Lunch was my weekly trek to the Skillet Airstream. An eclectic week for me: Cucumber Mint Fresca, Tom Kha Gai soup (trying to find a stateside equivalent of a brilliant version I had at Cafe de Jaren in Amsterdam last year), and a veggie poutine with fontina. The soup was everything I hoped for, but not more. Just solid.

I picked up their Rhubarb Upside Down Cake for late afternoon was still pretty full in time to head across the street to dinner at Mr. T’s daytime haunt. And what was for dessert there? Rhubarb Crumble. I guess it’s a sign that Spring might be for reals.

Tonight was Burger of the Month night. We headed to Belltown to go to Spur. On the menu: crispy pork, fromage blanc puff pastry, the Bison Burger and Pork Sliders for Mr. T. Dessert: Almond Sorbet. It was amazing. After dinner, we headed to the Via Trib opening dinner but left quickly due to the mass of humanity.

The day started like any other in early Spring – rainy, gloomy. By dinnertime, the sun arrived. I walked up and down the street before the pizza man arrived.

With my MacBook as my witness, I will file my taxes tonight!

Forgot to cart in my lunch, so we turned this into an opportunity: Crab Cake Salad at Homegrown, to go!

C&I invited us over for Easter Brunch. As I snapped this picture, Miss N here goes for it.

Tonight, we journeyed to the Eastside for a combo game-night/book club at Phil’s house in Redmond. This month, we discussed Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. The book begins as many are fleeing Paris in the early stages of World War II. The author died in Auschwitz, so the book is unfinished.

Slow in parts, but overall: highly recommended book. Game night also went well — I saw a number of friends, some I hadn’t seen in months.

Weeks back, I discovered Mad Men. We don’t subscribe to cable since we’d rather have TV cater to our schedule rather than cater to theirs at $100/month. The downside is that you miss out on awesome shows as they happen, but the upside to media these days is that we can get the greatest stuff on DVD at our whim. Works nicely. This finally made it to the top of my Netflix queue.

Mad Men is now the latest show that we really really love. Set in 1960-62, at an advertising agency in NYC. On our flight back from New Orleans, Mr. T got into it. Tonight after I was a good girl and did my “homework,” I watched some of this disc (again) and we started on Season 2. Highly recommended show for the storylines, the art direction, and the characters.

I’m unaware of this torte’s official name, but I’m calling it Hazelnut Chocolate Torte. Another from Monday night’s gathering, saved for a happy late afternoon treat today. Also from a lovely bakery in West Seattle – Bakery Nouveau.